Easy
by Jessyca Thornbrook
Summary: An Alternate Universe story, where Mamoru grew up with a family and Usagi didn't. Basically my exploration of who Usagi and Mamoru might be if they'd traded childhoods. Later chapters will have plenty of action!
1. Chapter 1

Okay, this story requires a little explanation. It's an AU, but I tried to keep most of it pretty close to the anime universe. There's one major change, and some smaller ones that were necessary to support it.

Basically, I was wondering what Mamoru and Usagi would be like if they'd had each other's lives. Not literally—Mamoru hasn't joined the Tsukino family—but in this story he has a family and Usagi doesn't.

Any personality changes in those two characters are intentional, based on how I think they'd be different if they'd had different childhoods. Differences in other characters' personalities will be minimal, and based on the influence of the two main characters. No superhero identities have been changed.

Hope that makes sense! Oh, and I don't own Sailor Moon. Not even in an alternate universe. _sigh_

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Easy

by Jessca Thornbrook

Chapter 1

She'd never had it easy. She'd been leading a cramped, smothered, frightened existence for as long as she could really remember. Her stomach growled in quiet classrooms, and the other students giggled. Her shoes were too small, her uniform too big, and her bookbag had a broken strap. Her family was a dim memory, growing fainter every day. Blurred images of long-ago happiness couldn't compete with the everyday barrage of noisy, exhausting indifference.

No. It was never easy.

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She was late for school again. The other girls had been clustered in front of the bathroom mirror in the dormitory, blocking all the sinks, so she couldn't get around them without being noticed. Kyoko was there. Kyoko with the scornful mouth, who always made fun of her hair in a voice like a sharp violin. She was doing her makeup right beside the only accessible sink. And Kyoko always noticed everything.

So she waited until they had all left. And now she was going to be late. Again. Haruna-san would be angry, and everyone would look at her when she came in. She ran faster, trying to ignore her pinched toes. She rounded a corner, fingers pushing off against a lamppost to help her make the turn, and ran smack into someone.

She flew back, knocked off her feet, her bag and its contents flying onto the sidewalk. Scrambling around to pick everything up, she barely allowed herself a frightened glance at the person she'd hit, but she was fairly sure it was a guy. Especially when he spoke.

"Hey, you should be more careful," he said, a bit annoyed, before normal human compassion kicked in. She was just a kid, and she seemed pretty freaked out about something. "Are you okay?" he asked, crouching down to help her pick up her papers. She nodded, and her lips moved in the shape of a word that might have been "yes," but no sound escaped.

She _had_ caught a glimpse of his face. He was handsome. Very. She was afraid of him.

Snatching the papers he held out, she stammered a confused mixture of "Arigato-gomen-sumimasen," and slipped past him, walking as quickly as she could, not daring to run for fear of falling down while he was still watching. She had almost reached the corner when he called after her.

"Hey! Usagi-chan!"

She froze. _How does he know my name?_ Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him jogging easily toward her. She focused on picking an imaginary speck off the hem of her shirt.

"You missed this one." He held out a wrinkled sheet of paper with her name at the top—her English assignment. She tried to thank him, but before she could force any sound from her throat, he added "Those first three answers are wrong, you know." She could tell from his voice that he was smiling. He was laughing at her.

"I'm late," she mumbled, reaching for the paper. He pulled it back out of reach, jokingly. She grabbed for it again, and he let her take it this time. Without another word, she turned and ran. He watched her go, smiling a little when she stumbled over her own feet.

_What a weird girl,_ he thought to himself. _Cute, __though. _He turned and headed off down the street.

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She was seven minutes late. Haruna-san was worse than usual about it, lecturing her in front of the whole class. She managed not to cry until she was out in the hall by herself, and even then, she couldn't really let herself go. Someone might walk by and see her. So she dug her fingernails into her palms and stared at the floor until it wasn't quite so hard to keep the tears back.

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Inside the classroom, a note made its way up the aisle from a tall, green-eyed girl in the back row to a girl in the front who was paying much closer attention to the teacher than any of the other students. The boy behind her leaned forward and slipped the folded paper under her elbow. She flushed and looked guiltily at the teacher, but Haruna-san was busy writing on the board. The girl unfolded the note carefully in her lap.

_Ami-chan,_

_Rei-chan said shrine today. Don't worry, we'll be done before cram school. M-san meeting us there. Mina-chan maybe, maybe not. Meet at lunch?_

_Bored to tears,_

_Mako_

_P.S. Hey, H-san sure was mean to little what's-her-name, huh? Bad date last night? ;-)_

Ami's eyes widened at the last part, and she quickly shoved the note deep into her pocket, shuddering at the thought of what might happen if she was caught with it. Makoto was a danger to herself and others when she was bored!


	2. Chapter 2

Okay, prepare yourselves for a shock: I don't own Sailor Moon.

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Easy

by Jessyca Thornbrook

Chapter 2

School was finally over. Usagi trudged back toward the orphanage—she never thought of it as "home." The day had only gone downhill from that morning. She'd dropped her lunch tray in the cafeteria, and everyone applauded. Then they'd had to play volleyball in gym class. She hated volleyball; she was terrible at it, and the other girls were so mean when she made mistakes!

_I hate it! I _hate_ it! I _HATE_ it!_ she thought, scuffing her foot viciously on the sidewalk to punctuate each 'hate.' Unfortunately, she scuffed too hard the last time, and her shoe, which had been barely holding together for weeks now, suddenly gave way. She stumbled, and landed on her hands and knees on the sidewalk.

She jumped up as quickly as she could, and darted into an alley, ignoring the painful scrapes and bruises until she was safely out of sight. Then she surveyed the damage. The heels of her hands were red and raw, and one knee was bleeding a little, but it was her shoe that brought tears to her eyes. The sole and upper had separated all along the front, so her toes went completely through and stuck out, showing that she had a hole in her sock, too.

_Nonononono! Okayama-san is going to be _so_ angry! She told me to be more careful with my things just last week when I ripped my skirt! What am I going to tell her?_ She sank to the ground, hugging her knees to her chest.

"Well, well. If it isn't the rodent!" The hated voice made Usagi's head snap up. "What's the matter, Rodent? Are you _crying_, Rodent?" Kyoko sneered, looming over Usagi while several of her friends snickered in the background.

Usagi scrambled to her feet, back to the wall, eyes scanning for an escape route. The alley was a dead end, and the three girls with Kyoko stood in a loose half-circle, almost completely blocking the entrance. She might be able to get by Teruka, but only if she moved quickly. Unfortunately, her glance caught Teruka's eye.

"Geez, Rodent, what's wrong with you? It's like, you barely even _talk_. Are you too stupid to talk, or something?"

"Yeah," chimed in Kimiyo, a sixteen-year-old with small eyes and bleached-orange hair, "she's too stupid to talk!" Kimiyo was the oldest of the bunch, nearly seventeen. This would ordinarily have made her the queen of the clique, but as she hadn't been blessed with much in the way of brains, she was usually content to follow Kyoko's lead.

"I don't mean to be rude," said Kyoko's best friend Risa with mock politeness, "but has anyone ever told you that you really don't look fourteen? I mean, you look more like you're six years old, with your little pigtails and dirty uniform and scabby knees, and ohmigod, Kyoko-chan, look at her shoes!" Risa pointed, and she and Kyoko broke into giggles. Teruka's high, nervous laughter and Kimiyo's blaring haw-haw (which had always reminded Usagi of a donkey with asthma) joined in.

Usagi felt her cheeks flaming as she held her head very still to keep the tears from spilling over. _Just stay quiet, don't move, they'll get bored and go away. . . _she chanted over and over in her head, like a spell to ward off demons.

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"Makoto-chan, could you slow down a little?" panted Ami, trying rather unsuccessfully to keep up with the much taller girl.

"I thought you were in a hurry to get there on time!"

"Well, yes, but—ouch!" Ami's nose suddenly made violent contact with her friend's shoulderblade. She stepped back, rubbing the injured feature, and looked to see what had made Makoto stop in the middle of the sidewalk like that.

A little way ahead on the other side of the street, she could see a group of girls clustered around the entrance to a small alleyway, but before Ami could figure out what they were doing, Makoto was moving again, quickly. She dashed across the road, barely wasting a glance on the oncoming traffic, ignoring the horns and angry expressions of the startled drivers. Ami sighed and followed more carefully.

Four girls—high school students, by their uniforms—crowded around a smaller girl in a Juuban Middle School uniform. One of the high school girls was trying to take the younger girl's bookbag. The small girl had both arms wrapped around it, hugging it desperately to her chest, but another girl grabbed her wrist, pulling her arm away, and the bag went flying.

Ami took all this in from a distance, as she hurried to catch up with Makoto, who reached the alley just as the bag hit the ground. The four antagonists were laughing so hard that they didn't even notice her at first.

"You know," a sarcastic voice cut through their giggles, "I think it's really pathetic for a bunch of high school girls to gang up on _one_ little middle schooler. But if that's your idea of fun," the voice took on a dangerous edge, "why don't you try picking on _me_?"

Kyoko and her friends looked up in surprise at the very angry, very tall girl standing behind them with her fists on her hips and a threatening gleam in her eye. Although they outnumbered her, none of them were in the habit of getting into physical confrontations with anyone who wasn't considerably smaller than they were. Besides, something about the expression on Makoto's face was sending shivers down their spines.

"Why don't you mind your own business?" Kyoko's false bravado was almost believable.

"She's a friend of ours, so this _is_ our business!" Ami suddenly spoke up, still a bit breathless from running.

Makoto glanced around at the four, her eyes stopping on Teruka. "You," she ordered, "give her back her bag." When Teruka hesitated, Makoto began cracking her knuckles ominously. Teruka gulped, bent down and picked up the bag. She dusted it off briefly and handed it back to Usagi, who accepted it in a kind of daze.

"Now why don't you go make fun of some preschool kids or something? Or better yet, go shopping and see if you can get yourselves a life!"

Kyoko hesitated for a moment, then stuck her nose in the air. "Come on, girls. We've got better things to do than hang around with these _children_!"

"You wish!" Makoto growled after them as they sauntered away. At least, they were _trying_ to saunter, but it looked a bit more like poorly disguised running.

Ami turned to Usagi. "Are you okay?" she asked in a kind voice.

Usagi was looking at them both with wide eyes. "I—I. . . you said that—" she blushed and muttered something in the direction of her toes. Ami could only catch the word "friend."

"I said—oh, that! Well, we aren't exactly friends, but we are classmates." The tiny, hesitant glimmer of hope in Usagi's eyes seemed to die out, so Ami quickly added "We could be friends, though, if you'd like to be." She shot Makoto a significant glance.

"Yeah," the green eyed girl chimed in, "neither of us has many friends at school. We three can stick together and try to survive Hurricane Haruna-after-a-bad-date!" Usagi actually giggled at that, and both of the other girls were surprised at the difference a smile made on her small face, like the sun coming out from behind a cloud. It reminded them both of something, but neither could quite put a finger on it.

"So," said Ami, "we're friends now?"

Usagi nodded. "A-a-arigato, Mizuno-san, Kino-san!" she blurted out, and bowed awkwardly, because she didn't know what else to do.

Kino Makoto laughed. "You don't need to be so formal! We're the same age, after all. I'm Makoto, and this is Ami-chan."

"I'm Usagi."

"Usagi? That's an unusual name. I guess your folks must like rabbits!" Makoto laughed. Usagi looked at the ground, feeling her face grow warm. Ami noticed she wasn't laughing, and quickly changed the subject.

"So, Usagi-chan, what do you think of the novel we're reading in literature class? I find the basic plot fairly simplistic, but the complex characters make it quite interesting."

Usagi stared at her blankly for a moment, before stammering "I, uh, well, I, um, I guess I don't understand it, really. . . ." She trailed off, knowing her face was beet red again.

"Me either!" Makoto chimed in, rescuing her from her embarrassment. "I mean, the people in it all talk so much that they never _do_ anything! It's like—" she was cut off by an exclamation from Ami, who was looking at her watch.

"Mako-chan! We're late! Sorry," she turned quickly to Usagi, "but we have this study group today, and the other members of the groupget really upset if we're late."

"Some of them do, anyway," muttered Makoto with a grin that Usagi didn't understand. "Hey, do you want to meet up with us later? Say, at the arcade, in a couple hours?" Usagi nodded dumbly, too surprised by the offer to answer in words. "Great!" Makoto declared energetically. "You know the Crown Center?" Another nod. "Then we'll see you there! Ja ne!"

And the two were gone. Usagi still stood in the alley, her mind trying to grasp what had just happened.

"Friends. . . ."


End file.
